Amazon launched the Kindle Store back in November 2007 as a way to sell e-books online via its own platform. The online bookstore is operated by Amazon and is a subsection of its overall retail website. As of 2026, the Kindle Store is the largest seller of e-books and also offers a variety of free content.
How to Purchase Books From the Kindle Store
You can easily purchase Kindle books using the Kindle app or any of Amazon's shopping apps. You do need an Amazon account to complete your purchase, but you don't need a dedicated reading tablet to buy and access e-books once you've paid.
If you do own a Kindle device, such as the Kindle Paperwhite, you can also purchase e-books directly from there. You don't need a Kindle Unlimited subscription to use a Kindle device, so you purchase books directly from the store without a monthly fee attached.
Kindle Unlimited Subscription
Kindle Unlimited is a separate subscription you can choose to purchase that gets you access to many books from the Kindle store at no additional cost. A Kindle Unlimited subscription costs $11.99 per month, but there's a 30-day free trial available via Amazon.
Members can borrow up to 20 e-books at a time, which includes things like comic books and manga. Not everything is included with a Kindle Unlimited subscription, but you can browse the full list of inclusions directly at Amazon. Some of the more popular fantasy genres like LitRPG and Romantasy are more heavily favored here, but there's a lot of everything.
When Does the Kindle Store Have Sales?
There are always deals circulating on the Kindle store for various e-books, but there are also specific times of year when you can expect a sale. The most obvious times are any time there's an overarching Amazon-exclusive sale. Some of the most notable of these are Prime Day in July and Prime Big Deal Days in October. Amazon also usually has its own book sale in late April around the same time as Independent bookstore day where you can usually find a ton of Kindle books for only $0.99.
Outside of those Amazon-specific sales, you can also usually find Kindle Store discounts during U.S. holiday weekends like Presidents Day and Labor Day. There are also always good deals on Kindle e-books during Black Friday season in November.